Church Spire!

Vacation!

I took a vacation to Virginia Beach September 10-13. Here are pictures!

Spent all day Thursday at the beach. It was windy and warm, once the sun finally decided to show itself!


The statue of Neptune at the beach.


Becky and I at the Naval Base in Norfolk.


Me and my awesome cousins, Danny and Karissa, who let us stay at their house for the weekend!


The nuclear submarine U.S.S. North Carolina. Danny used to be in the Navy (is now in the Reserves) and we were allowed in and on board and given a tour. Now I can say I've been on a nuclear sub. Danny's current job? Building these things (and also the carriers too).


Bet you didn't know that swearing is illegal in Virginia Beach!


Becky and I at the Music Builds Concert.



Jars of Clay.


Switchfoot. I think this is when they were playing "This is Home." Which was one of my favorite performances of theirs. Especially because of the Narnia (and Heaven) references.


Third Day.

And the encore had to be the best ever. All three of the groups came up on stage together (along with a guy from the fourth group who had been playing) and they all did a cover of U2's "When Love Comes to Town." Absolutely amazing.

Without a doubt, it goes down as one of the best vacations I've ever had. (The concert goes down for best ever. Hands down.)

care for a cup of coffee?

Flying Squirrel

One of the highlights from my Sunday:



Getting to hold and pet a flying squirrel.

Doesn't matter that he's part of the squirrel mafia. He was still the cutest (and softest) thing ever.

Highlights from Florida

Highlights from my trip to Florida:

- Spending a majority of my time with all those people in that picture. I love them all very much. - Dinner at Stacey's Buffet with 70+ people (all of the above and then some)
- Meeting and getting to know Janet (who is now like another Aunt)
- Spending time with my grandmother
- Meeting my great-great-great grandparents for the first time via pictures
- Beach volleyball with almost all of those people in that picture
- Teasing Rochelle
- Reading
- Relaxing
- 80 degree weather with little humidity
- Remembering my great-grandfather
- Picnic at Uncle Bill's, with all 50+ of us crowded in there
- Playing several rousing rounds of Catch Phrase with 30 people
- Sunday dinner at Uncle Bill's
- A possessed toilet
- Walks with Abigail (my absolutely adorable second cousin, who is sitting on the lap of my Uncle Bill, who is the second from the right in the row of people sitting in the picture)
- No problems with any flights both ways, with either the flights or acquiring luggage
- Finding a good bunch of them on Facebook in the last week so I can continue to stay in touch with them
- Stephen's crazy dancing on the beach

Walks with Abigail were definitely a highlight. She's 2, and latched on to me almost immediately. She would pull me outside and wanted to walk with me up and down the street where we would sit and watch the cars and count them as they drove by.

I had so much fun with all of those beautiful people, most of whom are either, aunts, uncles, first-cousins-once-removed or second cousins. It was so cool to be a part of something that felt so much larger than myself, and it's all thanks to my great-grandmother and great-grandfather. I love you both and will miss you here on earth, but I know I'll see you later!

Snow Angels!

Making snow angels is so much fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm off for my mother's over in NJ. Thursday afternoon, I'll be flying up to Maine to visit family, and will be driving back on Saturday. Sunday, I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with family in Delaware. It will be busy, but it will be very good.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Autumn!

Renaissance Faire!

Highlights include:

- A Midsummer Night's Dream

- Playing with swords

- Crossing the Kissing Bridge by order of the queen (no, seriously - she told us to cross it, and we couldn't disobey)

- Human Chess Match

-Archery demonstration

- Joust

- Watching Nicole enjoy herself, as she had never been before

Pictures come courtesy of Nicole and Becky!

Welcome to the Monkey House!

Back in May, I got to visit the Baltimore Zoo with my dear friend Tracey. My good college friend Megan works there, and being on the inside, got us in to visit the monkeys! My favorite part of the tour was getting to feed the lemurs mulberry branches!

This is Brutus with his branch. If I'm not mistaken, he is the one that has the lazy eye (though you can't tell it from these pictures).

Meet Crispus and Leo! These two definitely loved to jump all over the place! It was fun to watch them jump over our heads and grab the branches.

We had to wear those surgical masks over our faces, so as to avoid the spreading of any nasty germs between both parties.

And I had to post another picture of some of my favorite lemurs. "I like to move it, move it!"

Happy Birthday!

This is my beautiful sister-in-love, Cindy. Today is her birthday! We've had many fantastical adventures together, including a trip to Colorado, a memorable visit to the RCA Dome out in Indianapolis, loosing our voices at football games, playing guitar together, singing for long hours into the night, many long and weary days during numerous Marching Band seasons, the ups and downs of my brother and now being family! Cindy, I love you and am so blessed to have you in my life! I always knew you'd be my sister! Happiest of Birthdays!

Happy Birthday!

My dear friend Laura had a birthday over the weekend! She threw a 'surprise' party for herself Friday evening, little knowing that the true surprise paty was the next day - a day of fun outdoors, complete with hiking and lots of outdoor excitement! It is such fun to spend time with her. Happy Birthday, my wonderful friend!

The Grey Havens, Part the Second!

Well, here it is!


After the reheresal dinner, we all went back to the inn and spent a good hour folding Misty's programs. If you click on the picture, you'll be able to see them better. They were folded like this game we used to play, the one where you'd fold a piece of paper on it in about 20 ways (or some such number) and then read off numbers and colors and count and then you'd supposedly get your fortune read. When we were growing up, my cousins and I would spend hours playing that game. It was neat to see. And I have no idea what my father was doing to have made a face like that...

The cliffs by the water's edge that I spent some time climbing. I climbed down to them Saturday afternoon, as we had loads of free time before the wedding started. I spent a good bit of down on the dock too.

A view of the dock and an idea of how far down I came to get to the water's edge. It wasn't all that harrowing. ;-)

On the cliffs.

And yet another view off the cliff.

My brother and his girlfriend, Alisha. She's the sweetest thing ever!

Wedding time! My at-that-time cousin-to-be waiting intently for his bride. Where is she?

Oh, there she is! And she was absolutely gorgeous!

They said their own vows to each other. Oddly enough, I could only here Keith's as where I was standing with my mom and our flutes/the flute stand, the wind was to us, and we couldn't here a word she said. (*Note to self: send her an email to ask her what she said.)

"'Nother one bites the dust..." The deed is done!

Nana, Aunt Carmen, Misty & Keith, Kevin, Angel and Autumn. My family has made me so very happy. :-)

Wedding funness!

All partied out and time to head to bed...

...but not before cake! Okay, confession: I didn't really like this cake. I can say that without feeling guilty because Mist was telling me up until the night before that she was jealous of the wedding cake I'd gotten at my brother's wedding. And after tasting her cake, I had to say that I agreed with her. Mrs. Z's wedding cake has now spoiled me! But it still was pretty.

Sunrise on Sunday. It was so peaceful.

And the sea looked like glass and those ships called me home...